Improvement in daguerreotype-plate holders



' UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

GEORGE MALLORY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN DAGUERREOTYPE-PLATE HOLDERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 7,655, dated September 17, 1850.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE MALLORY, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Daguerreotype-Plate Holders, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which formv part ot' this specification, and in which- Figure l represents a View in perspective of my daguerreotype-plate holder, and Fig. 2 a similar View of the same with a daguerreotype-plate in the act ot being applied to it.

My invention consists of a single block, to which the daguerreotype-plate is securely clamped by one or more springs secured to the sides or ends of the blocks in such manner that all the operations to which the plate is subjected by the daguerreotyper can be eftected without removing the plate from the holder, while at the same time the plate is quickly and readily either clamped to or removed from the face ot the block.

In the accompanying drawings, A is the block. It is made of a size to suit the plates which it is intended to hold, the breadth and length of its face being somewhat less than those of the plate. Itis faced with a plate of metal B, which is extended beyond one of the sides of the block and is there bent into a U form, as represented in the drawings at C, thus forming a plate-spring. The upper edge of the outer branch of this U-spring is anged and the opposite edge of the block is fitted with a corner-plate d, which extends from end to end and forms a flange or ledge at that side of the block. These flanges serve to hold the plate to the block. The plate E has its edges turned down, as represented at This turning down of the edges not Fig. 2.

only stilens the plate and forms a rounded edge for the buffer to pass over, but also forms recesses into whichthe anges on the edges ot the spring and corner plates catch. When theplate is to be placed upon the holder, one g of its bent edges is applied to the flanged edge of the U-spring plate, and the plate is turned upon this as a hinge toward the face of the holder. As the plate nears the face of the holder, the edge rst applied is pressed inward by the fingers, thus' compressing the spring-plate and allowing the bent edge h to be passed over the edge ot the corner-plate CZ, when by the relaxing of the pressure uponV the edge g the corner-plate engaging in the bent edge h of the plate secures the latter to the holder.

T his daguerreotype-plate holder may be used with advantage tohold the plate throughout the whole process of daguerreotyping, and the latter is easily disengaged from it by compressing the spring. Circumstances may arise which will render it expedient to place a spring on the two opposite sides ot the block instead ot on one, in which case the face-plate maybe extended beyond the opposite sides of the block and both of the extended portions be bent into a U form.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The daguerreotype-plate holder constructed, substantially as herein described, of a block witha spring edge, by which the plate is secured to it.

In testi nony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

GEORGE MALLORY. lVitnesses:

WM. E. CURTIS, ALFRED ROE. 

